Production designer Rupin Suchak helped make parts of Mumbai Pakistani while racing against the release date of “Dhurandhar 2”. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Suchak revealed how the team reconstructed key locations, handled a difficult mid-project handover and delivered some of the most expensive sequences in the two-part film. His account highlights the magnitude of the behind-the-scenes work that shaped ‘Dhurandhar’.
‘Dhurandhar 2’ production design
NDTV reported that Suchak joined the two-part “Dhurandhar” saga as an additional production designer after production designer Saini S Johray exited the project. He said that the film was shot in a connected process, with parts of the second part closely related to the first.“It was an integrated shoot. It wasn’t like shooting an independent film for the second part. So some parts of the second part have been borrowed from the filming of the first part.’He added: “The first part was done by another production designer who had to leave and didn’t continue on the second part. We took over and started running the second part somewhere in the middle because it was a mix of the two parts.”
Expensive sets and Mumbai became Pakistan
Built on a budget of $33.6 million, ‘Dhurandhar’ was shot in Bangkok, Thailand, and in Mumbai, Chandigarh and Amritsar. One of the largest buildings was a complex in the Lyari district, spread over six hectares of Bangkok.“Lyari set creation was one of the most expensive creations we have done within the film…Also, the set design where Arjun Rampal’s father is sitting and the whole bathtub sequence was also an expensive sequence.”Suchak said the short deadline pushed the budget higher. “You have to calibrate time or money. Because time was short, money was bigger in execution. And, we did that. We were running against time to complete it when we were closing the release of the second part, and that’s why we had to complete it”.Also, the team said it had to reconstruct a key street sequence in Mumbai’s Film City after problems elsewhere. “Actually, we had chosen a full costume for a location in Mumbai, and due to some technical and permission issues we couldn’t go ahead. So we had to set that up. So we set it entirely in Film City. The entire ambulance scene with Sanjay Dutt on the street was also shot at Film City.”Suchak further revealed that the team shot around Mumbai’s Bora Bazar and transformed the busy market for scenes in Pakistan. He said only entering on a Sunday made the job particularly difficult, adding another challenge to the tight production schedule before release.
